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Coming off of a challenging year for the wind industry, Vestas Wind Systems announced Thursday that it had secured its biggest wind turbine order since 2010, picking up speed after laying off 10 percent of its Colorado workforce in February.

The newly announced order from Duke Energy Renewables will be keeping Vestas’ blade factories busy, including the one in Windsor, which opened in 2008 and was hit hard by layoffs seven months ago.

“This is the biggest order we’ve announced as a company globally in three years,” said Andrew Longeteig, Vestas’ head of external communications for North America. “It’s definitely good news for Windsor because they manufacture the 54-meter blades that go into the V110-2.0 megawatt turbines.”

Longeteig said this is the third turbine order this month for Vestas, a Denmark-based company with facilities also in Brighton and Pueblo.

The mammoth 400 megawatt order from Duke Energy Renewables is for two wind-energy projects — Los Vientos III and Los Vientos IV — in southern Texas, according to a Vestas news release.

Vestas’ Colorado factories will manufacture blades, nacelles and towers for the projects. Los Vientos IV, once completed, will be the 10th largest Texas wind energy project using Vestas turbines.

Activity is picking up partially due to the one-year extension of the production tax credit for wind energy earlier this year, according to Longeteig.

“There are a lot of companies looking to invest in wind power right now,” Longeteig said, spelling out good news to the company’s four Colorado factories where a total of 1,200 people are employed.

Windsor’s blade factory, Longeteig said, employs hundreds, but a specific number was not available.

“The Windsor factory is growing in a smart way,” he added. “We’re not overhiring, but we’re hiring at the Windsor factory and other factories at the moment. Hopefully that will continue to grow.”